The present invention relates to devices for cleaning objects, including golf balls and the like, and more particularly to such a device including a cleaning element comprising a rotatable body for rotation about a stationary track interior of the body, the body including at least a first interior abrasive object cleaning surface to simultaneously clean and convey objects along the stationary track from an inlet end to an outlet end of the cleaning element as the rotatable body is rotated by a drive mechanism relative to the stationary track.
Devices for cleaning and/or washing objects have been around for a number of years, and find applications ranging from cleaning produce, eggs, and candy to cleaning golf balls. See, e.g., Porter, U.S. Pat. No. 1,058,461 (teaching a fruit cleaner); Reading, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,454,090 and 2,691,786 (disclosing an egg washer); and Currie, U.S. Pat. No. 2,590,381 (teaching a candy cleaning machine).
Demand for high volume, efficacious cleaning devices is particularly pronounced in the golf industry. Indeed, there exist today thousands of golf courses in the United States alone, many of which offer golf swing practice, or driving, ranges. There are, additionally, myriad independent, or stand alone, driving ranges. Efficient and cost-effective cleaning of golf balls for these driving ranges is a competitive necessity, as manual cleaning or cleaning by mechanically simple, low-output-volume devices is not economical.
Devices particularly directed to cleaning and/or washing golf balls are known, varying in mechanical complexity from simple, manually operated, single golf ball cleaning devices, punctuating the landscape of virtually every golf course in this country, to automated apparatus for cleaning hundreds upon thousands of golf balls in a relatively short time. An example of the former device may be found in A. P. Young, U.S. Pat. No. 1,807,023, while golf ball washers of the latter variety may be found in Thrasher, U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,114, and Hollrock, U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,251.
However, an object cleaning device of the type of the present invention, having as one of its applications the cleaning of golf balls, has been heretofore unknown.